The scheduling of Ireland’s suddenly vital Rugby World Cup match with Russia at 7.15pm local time, means many fans will be in work as the team lines out in the Kobe Misaki Stadium.

For all the travails of last weekend’s calamitous defeat by Japan, Joe Schmidt’s belief in his players and their potential to deliver the best World Cup return in Ireland’s rugby history remains steadfast.

Just seven weeks short of a decade since he kicked the first of his 767 Test points on debut against Fiji, Johnny Sexton spoke about the honour of finally leading Ireland onto the field as team captain.

As Ireland hunkers down for the arrival Thursday of Hurricane Lorenzo (has a weather event ever sounded as masculine?), over in Japan the boys in green are slowly moving on from the wreckage of last Saturday’s storm in Shizuoka.

Johnny Sexton will return to the Ireland starting line-up on Thursday as Joe Schmidt’s team bids to reignite their World Cup Pool A campaign against Russia with a much-changed XV.

Scotland have claimed all five points on offer with a 34-0 defeat of Samoa in the sweat box that was the Kobe Misaki Stadium on Monday but it took them over 76 minutes to do so.